Timeline

Community programme launched

June 12th, 1987

Today, the Foundation of Light is the largest football charity in the UK, with a mission to use the power of football to involve, educate and inspire more than 42,000 young people and their families across the North East each year through a range of pioneering and award-winning programmes that help change lives.

The origins of the charity date back to the late 80s when Bob insisted the club took part in a successful pilot scheme known as ‘Community Programme in Professional Football.’

The results of this pilot were far-reaching in Bob’s thinking at Sunderland and instrumental in the Football Trust’s decision in the early 1990’s to invest nationally in Football in the Community schemes, with which Sunderland were involved from the outset.

By the time the Club moved from Roker Park to the Stadium of Light, a far-reaching community programme (SAFCommunity) had been developed, but it was the move to the Stadium of Light that proved to be the real catalyst for the Foundation, which has since gone from strength to strength and continues to work with young people and their families across the region